Jonathan J. Lerner

As a member of Pilgrim Mediation Group LLC, Jonathan J. Lerner has been appointed by parties and/or federal and states judges to mediate a wide-variety of complex disputes, including securities class actions, patent litigation commercial cases and law firm disputes.

In the 2016 USA Chambers Guide, Mr. Lerner is recognized as one of only twenty-two mediators ranked as Nationwide Mediators. (Link to Chamber profiles.) As described in Chambers: “Renown litigator Jonathan Lerner is increasingly recognized for his mediation practice as a member of Pilgrim Mediation Group in New York. He brings several decades of experience at the forefront of commercial and securities litigation to his work in alternate dispute resolution. The ‘terrific’ Jonathan Lerner is held in high regard for his extensive litigation practice, drawing on longstanding expertise in nationwide securities disputes and commercial claims as well as experience serving as a mediator. Interviewees highlight the ‘incredible, gentle wisdom he brings to high-stakes cases.’”

Mr. Lerner also served as a Special Master in two of the largest securities class actions pending in the federal courts. In 2014, he became a Fellow in the Academy of Court-Appointed Masters.

Mr. Lerner was a partner in the New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP for more than 30 years and headed the Litigation Practice for almost 20 years. He has been involved in some of the most highly visible and complex cases in the country. Mr. Lerner has served as lead trial counsel for both plaintiffs and defendants in jury and bench trials and arbitrations.

Mr. Lerner is currently ranked in Chambers USA as a Senior Statesman in nationwide securities litigation, general commercial litigation and New York securities litigation. He is also listed in The Best Lawyers in America in “bet-the-company” litigation, commercial litigation and mergers and acquisitions litigation. During his litigation career, he has been profiled in The New York Times and twice in The American Lawyer and The New York Law Journal.

He was lead trial counsel for DaimlerChrysler AG in its victory in the trial of the multibillion-dollar securities fraud action filed by Kirk Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corporation in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware over the 1998 merger of Daimler and Chrysler. Mr. Lerner’s victory for DaimlerChrysler was named the “Top Defense Win of 2005” by The National Law Journal.

Mr. Lerner has resolved some of the largest and most complex disputes in the country, many through the mediation process, including Cendant Securities Litigation, McKesson Securities Litigation, DaimlerChrysler Securities Litigation, the Collins & Aikman Securities Litigation, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Securities Litigation and Jakks Pacific Securities Litigation.

During Mr. Lerner’s legal career spanning more than 40 years, he has served as an arbitrator, an expert witness in legal ethics and as Chair of a Hearing Panel for the Departmental Disciplinary Committee, Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, for more than a decade where he presided over approximately one hundred disciplinary proceedings. Mr. Lerner served on the faculties of both Columbia University School of Law (Lecturer-at-Law) and Brooklyn Law School (Adjunct Professor) where he taught legal ethics. In 2003, Mr. Lerner received from the New York State Bar Association the Sanford D. Levy Award for outstanding contributions to the field of legal ethics.